How the Prince Makes Friends - Chapter 115



Only Noblemtl

Episode 115

Lianus glanced at his friend.

What would he be thinking as he looked at the prince’s garden, so empty? I wanted to show him only a cool and dignified appearance, but it didn’t work out as I wanted. I should have asked him to take care of it a long time ago…

On the other hand, Nihil had no interest in flowers to begin with, so he picked up a plum blossom that had fallen to the ground and carefully placed it on Lianus’ head, saying:

“Rian, should we make a bookmark with the fallen flower petals?”

“Bookmark?”

“Yeah, it’s fine to put it in a frame.”

“Okay! Let’s make it!”

Lianus was immediately excited by Nihil’s suggestion to make a bookmark, and he began to pick up the fallen petals. He picked up only the pretty ones that had relatively intact tips and undiscolored leaves, and filled both hands with them.

I have to make it pretty and give it to Nihil as a gift!

After that, I played without realizing how much time had passed. The game that Nihil taught me was a little unusual, but it was fun.

“Neil, this seems too difficult… Oh, you’re right!”

Lianus, who had been glaring as if he could pierce through the stones with just his eyes, knocked over a flat rock and jumped up and down, saying it was great.

Evan, who had been unable to knock down even one rock despite hitting it, glared at the back of Nihil’s head. The lynx must have manipulated something.

Evan was about to confront the stray cat who was blatantly manipulating the game, but he shut his mouth when he saw our lovely, cute, and cuddly kitten jumping around and lovingly.

When I thought about it, there was no way that I, a lowly person, could defeat our great kitten.

“I lost, Prince.”

“Wow!”

Nihil won and gave a wreath made of wild flowers to his favorite Rianus. It was very crude, but Rianus just smiled and said it was good.

“Snake, why don’t you do it?”

“If I do it, won’t the game not work?”

“Are you sure?”

Nihil didn’t answer and quietly picked up the stone. Then he threw it at the tombstone that Evan had failed to knock down.

Whoosh-, bang!

With a loud noise that was hard to imagine from just throwing a stone, the stone that was stuck in the ground spun around in the air, scattering dirt, and then crashed into the ground. A small hole was created in the ground where the stone had been.

“…….”

Evan was so dumbfounded that he opened his mouth and looked at Nihil, then screamed.

“Hey! Why is my gravestone stuck in the ground like that?”

“Shouldn’t you have thrown it too hard?”

“I didn’t know it was placed like that!”

Nihil shrugged his shoulders, saying that the match was already decided.

“Rian, let’s play hide and seek.”

“Okay! Since Sir Evan lost, you’re playing tag, right?”

“…yes.”

“Use mana so you don’t feel any movement.”

“Okay, then hide it.”

Evan began counting after carefully warning the two boys never to leave the garden.

“…98…99…100! Find it!”

Evan vowed to fix the match himself. I have to pretend not to see our cute kitten. I can’t possibly take in the great kitten with my own eyes.

But that thought had to be quickly changed.

Evan sighed as he saw the word ‘Bam’ scrawled across the floor. It was already the second time he had failed. Not even a single strand of our cute kitten’s curly hair was visible, let alone the lynx. It seemed like the lynx had kidnapped the kitten.

“Damn, you son of a bitch.”

Evan rummaged through the garden for a while before he found the third ‘kwang’ and dug it out. This time, the kwang was made of small pebbles. The carefully crafted letters were proof that the little ones had been in this spot for quite some time.

“Oh, really!”

Evan ruffled his hair. He was about to kick away the pebble that had the word “Boom” written on it in annoyance, but then he suddenly thought that maybe our cute kitten had also done the same, so he straightened the slightly crooked letters and began to concentrate on the sounds around him.

A dry and slightly cool breeze was still blowing. I was a little worried that our little kitten might be cold, when suddenly a giggling sound was heard from somewhere.

The laughter was very small and soon disappeared, but Evan didn’t miss it and wrapped his aura around his toes, closing the distance in an instant.

And then he found two little ones crouching behind the flower bed. The prince, who was expected to laugh, was being held in the arms of a lynx, his mouth covered.

Two pairs of large eyes stared up at Evan. One pair of eyes of different colors were so round that they could not possibly grow any bigger, and the other pair of eyes with a mysterious light were peaceful.

“……hiccup.”

Evan smiled involuntarily as he watched the cute creature hiccup in surprise at the sight of him.

“Found it.”

“Sir Evan, you surprised me!”

“I’m sorry. I don’t think I’ll be able to catch you if I don’t do it like this…….”

In fact, it took quite some time to find these two little ones. If it weren’t for the hints and the occasional traces that were also a dud, I would have thought they had been kidnapped.

“No matter what, you’re still wearing an aura.”

Nihil, who had been squatting, stood up and slapped Evan.

“There was no one who said not to strengthen your body with mana.”

“If I told them I used Auror while playing hide-and-seek with the kids, they’d all say I did a great job.”

“…….”

Lianus laughed out loud, saying it was funny. Evan was a little embarrassed, but decided to go out shamelessly.

“Who told you to hide so thoroughly?”

“You should blame your skills.”

“…….”

“Train more.”

Evan was a little sullen. He had never thought of himself as weak, but he had been experiencing it with his whole body lately because of that lynx.

“No, Sir Evan. Neil said that. The range of presence detection is wider than you think, so it’s hard to hide. In fact, I almost got caught several times, but I barely escaped thanks to Neil’s attention being diverted elsewhere. If I hadn’t laughed, I could have hidden longer… ”

“But why are you laughing all of a sudden after hiding so well?”

“Uh, yeah?”

Lianus averted his gaze. For a split second, his gaze landed on a corner of the ground, and Evan couldn’t miss it.

Nihil quickly swept the floor with his sole, but Evan saw a few letters that had not been completely erased.

-Stupid idiot

“…….”

If it had been erased just a little more, it could have been mistaken for ‘stupid idiot’, but this erased letter that was clearly ‘stupid doggy’ eventually disappeared by Nihil.

“You…, no, so next time you’ll be the one…, the prince?”

Evan was about to say something to Nihil, but changed the subject. He didn’t want to admit with his own mouth that he was a dog.

I thought about letting the wildcat guy be the next tagger, but it was clear that if he did it, it would be over in an instant.

“Uh…, um….”

Lianus took one look at his friend and, as if he had the same idea as Evan, started counting numbers, saying he would play tag.

“…55…56…57…….”

While Lianus was counting diligently, Evan followed the little head of Nihil, wanting to see how he hid.

Nihil stopped not far away, looked Evan up and down as he followed him, and opened his mouth absentmindedly.

“Would you be able to hide with that size?”

“…….”

“I won’t hide you.”

“I’ll hide it on my own.”

“It’ll be hard.”

The garden didn’t have many structures, and those that did were low. It might be okay for small children like Nihil or Rianus, but even if Evan squatted down, the structures wouldn’t be able to hide his size.

If the trees were thick, you could climb up and hide, but in early spring, the trees only had a few flower buds, so they weren’t suitable for hiding. Furthermore, if a man as big as Evan climbed up, the branches might break.

As expected, Evan got caught not long after they started.

“I found Sir Evan!”

“Ugh…….”

Evan sat up from his flat body and dusted himself off. It was a sign that he had been trying hard to hide without being seen.

I managed to hold out for a long time by taking advantage of blind spots, but it seems like it was impossible to cover the size.

Evan looked at a corner of the garden. The lynx that had been there just a moment ago was nowhere to be seen. It had hidden itself again, using him as bait.

Lianus wandered around looking for Nihil. He circled fountains, searched through wormholes, and lifted rocks.

“Where did Neil go? He must be flying in the sky….”

As Lianus muttered, he looked up and his eyes met with Nihil’s, who was sitting on a tree branch.

“Neil?!”

Surely no one was there?

Nihil, whose eyes met mine, smiled with the corners of his eyes curved and then waved his hand lightly.

“Rian.”

“Oh, how long have you been there?”

“It was in the back and then I moved it here.”

“Is it really possible to fly in the sky?”

“That can’t be true.”

Nihil laughed lightly and jumped down from the branch. Even his jumping movements were so light and calm that I wondered if my friend was weightless.

And the kitten couldn’t stand the doubt.

“Kkieng…, tea!”

“……?”

Rianus lifted Nihil with all his might. However, he could barely lift his feet, and he could not lift him up as quickly as Nihil had when he had hugged Rianus.

Nihil, who was being held, and Evan, who was watching, were both nervous because his back was bent back and it seemed as if he would collapse.

“…Rian, it’s heavy, so why don’t you put it down?”

“Oh no! It’s not heavy!”

“Don’t lean back too much. You’ll get hurt.”

“Eung, ugh!”

Only after Evan caught him from falling backwards was Nihil able to escape from Lianus’s arms.

“Neil jumped so lightly that I thought he was weightless……”

“That can’t be true.”

“Neil carries me around lightly.”

“I am strong.”

“I want to become strong too.”

“When you grow up, you will become stronger.”

“I want to carry Neil around in a flashy way!”

“…Is it really necessary to do that?”

“huh!”

“…I’ll try to lose weight.”

“What nonsense are you talking about? What are you going to cut down on there…….”

Evan snorted and picked up the two little ones.

When we returned to the place where the mats had been laid out, there was a picnic basket that we had never seen before. It seemed like the chef had left it there.

They must have put a lot of thought into the food, as it was more childish than usual, to match the picnic. It was easy to eat, so it seemed like a lot of work had gone into it. The dessert was a jelly pudding with lots of strawberries, and for some reason, Evan also had a share.

Evan looked at the teaspoon, which was much smaller than his thumb, and the jelly pudding with a subtle gaze, then put it in his mouth and chewed it. It was tasty, but too… too little.

“What do we do now?”

After the meal, Rianus, who had taken the medicine given by Nihil, lay down on the mat and asked. Nihil, who was lying next to him with his eyes closed, did not answer right away, but instead slightly raised his hand and grabbed Rianus’ wrist.

After checking the condition of Lianus’ body, Nihil cautiously opened his eyes. It seemed that any more dynamic activities would be impossible.

“Let’s press the collected flower petals.”

But at the suggestion of pressing flowers, Lianus showed a look of regret and turned around towards Nihil.

“Ugh, I don’t want to go in yet…….”

Nihil opened his mouth, gently stroking the dark green hair of Lianus, who was busy photosynthesizing.

“No need to go in. Let’s just have them bring a few thick books.”

“good!”

At the mention of needing a book, Evan gestured to a servant passing by from afar. The servant put down the box he was carrying and came running.

“What, what, what’s going on?”

Nihil rolled his eyes slightly as he lay sprawled on the mat, looking at the servant. The servant, whose eyes met Nihil’s, took a deep breath. Nihil quickly closed his eyes again, but the servant’s gaze did not leave Nihil.

Evan, who was watching the scene, clicked his tongue and put Nihil’s hood on.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve seen it, but your reaction is still excessive. Bring a thick book. She said she’s going to make pressed flowers.”

“Oh, yes, yes. I understand. Is there anything else…?”

“Bring the sunshade too. Is there anything else you need, Prince?”

“Well, if you have anything to play with, just bring it.”

The servant ran into the palace, saying he would be back soon.

And the three people who were enjoying their leisure time on the mat were left speechless by the sight that unfolded a moment later.